Auron slowly peeked his head into the office. Shame over having heard such a private conversation painted his cheeks a slight pink. To his surprise, he was met not only with Gregory's stone hewn face but also, two other people in the room. A bright smile allowed him to recognize Thatch instantly. While the man threw his eyes toward the food on the desk repeatedly, his smile somehow grew even more brilliant. The other was a deadly and beautiful looking woman. She was standing with one hand placed on Gregory. Dressed in all white, she had a lethal-looking wooden staff clasped in her other hand. Auron's inspection activated when his eyes rolled over her.

Laura Felt-worth Class: Dragoon Knight lvl ??

Watching the young man's gaze as if in the appraisal, Gregory placed a hand over Laura's and spoke. "This is my wife and Co-chief of the Monsterbane association. She is just as in control of this guild as I am." His rocky voice rumbled through the near-silent room.

 "Pleasure to meet you." The woman seemed to force the friendliness out of her lips. Auron returned the greeting, and Thatch made him sit down and eat. Waiting patiently, the others having already eaten, allowed Auron time to finish.

The young rogue was feeling somewhat awkward being the only person eating. It seemed others could tell as they began speaking about Guild information. The information was useless to Auron, but he welcomed them not staring at him while eating.

Something about the increased appearance of monsters attacking the city was their topic. Intrigued, but hungry, he dug into the food. What looked like a whole mini chicken and assorted greens was on a slate circle. With slight hesitation, he picked up a utensil and tried his first bite.

"Oh, gods!" Auron groaned as the others stopped speaking. Even Laura had a slight smile threatening to crack her stoic expression.

As Auron devoured the delicious meat and felt a slight twinge in the mana connections in his chest, the others continued their conversation. Each bite sent an electrical spark full of flavor across his tongue.

Connection to yellow mana sources increased. Temporary buff granted: Stamina recovery rate increased.

Auron was surprised to see the results of eating an elemental creature, but he did not care as he shoveled the food into his mouth. For the first time, he felt a small relief to his aching muscles. His theory about a missing mana type held true. Yellow mana was related to stamina. When he tried the vegetables that the chicken came with, they did compliment the flavor but had no other benefits.

After the three guild members politely waited for Auron to finish, he resisted licking the plate, and bashfully sat up straight and wiped his face with his hands. Thatch slapped his legs and let out a laugh.

"Well, now that the entertainment is done, I am going to be on my way. Glad to see you enjoyed the chicken." He chirped as he left the room.

Now that it was just Auron and the two High leveled adventurers, he felt a little odd. They were looking at him and then each other. Auron believed they must have been communicating without words, possibly a communication skill, or maybe that is just something a husband and wife could do without the help of magic. 

After a few tense moments, Laura began to speak. "Greg told me that he offered for you to stay with us. I disagreed initially, but seeing how weak and pathetic you are, I suppose we could put you up for a day or two until you are up on your feet... I will see you both back at the house." She finished speaking and quickly left the room, choosing the window, rather than the stairs as her point of exit.

A flabbergasted Auron just watched in amazement as the woman dropped out and slowly floated down. 

Watching her leave, and Auron's over the top reaction calmly, Gregory had a slight smile on his face.

 "As you heard, Rodney brought up my son before he stormed out." As the powerful man spoke, the smile evaporated from his face. "Reports say he was killed in the jungle. The only survivor of his party was Rodney, who was knocked unconscious immediately," Gregory sighed and brought an item out from a desk drawer. Auron could not make out what it was, but it seemed to soothe the man. 

"They went out to try and prove themselves. As you may have noticed, the members of my party are all young. A few years older than you, I would say. All Bronze members. Though they are close to silver." As he spoke, he stood and fiddled with the straps on his armor. Seeing him heft the huge metal pieces and tighten the belts holding them together made Auron wonder if the chair the multiple ton man sat on was made by magical means.

"Since we lost that party, we do not allow bronze members outside the walls alone. It never used to be that dangerous. My boy would never have lost to some animal. There had to be more to it. Damn fiends!" With the bark of a word he stomped his foot, Purple mana gathered around the man, and Auron jumped, slightly startled by the outburst. The room must have been reinforced because though he shook the whole room with his stomp, the floor was only slightly cracked.

Gregory contained his wild emotions after a moment of moving around the item in his palm. Shortly after, he began speaking again. 

"He was around your age, same class too. If finding you and bringing you here was not the will of the gods, I will never know what could be," Gregory said the last sentence with finality, his eyes showed flashes of emotion only to be hidden away quickly after. 

There was a storm inside this man. Auron did not want to ever be on the wrong side of it. 

He knew not to ask any of the questions that came to mind from the information. After a slight pause, the man walked toward Auron and slipped the dagger out of his belt. Auron was about to raise his hands defensively when Gregory walked around and flipped the hilt toward him.

"Take it. I don't have any use for such a small weapon. You can handle it until we get you a replacement." 

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Auron grabbed the weapon while rising out of his seat. "For what its worth, I am sorry for your loss. Losing family is something that never gets better; you just learn to live with it." 

Gregory grunted in agreement, slight surprise showed on his face at a man several times younger and lower-leveled, knowing his pain. 

As Auron tried not to think of his dealings with loss, the Guild leader stopped at the door leading out. 

"I know you aren't him, but I can not help but feel you are here for a reason, Auron," The man said these last words while placing his tiny familiar into his tattoo. Auron did not remember introducing himself, but he realized that with magic, introductions would not be a part of society. 

After Gregory finished speaking, he opened the door and nodded his head for the young man to follow, leaving no room for Auron to respond.

As Auron pondered the Guild master's words, he followed Gregory down the stairs and out of the guild. In the low light of the evening, he noted a colorful change in the city. Wisps shedding a rainbow of hues were kept in what looked like glass boxes hung above the townsfolk's heads. On every building, they were placed like makeshift lanterns.

The wisp lanterns spread out conservatively still lit the walkways between structures well enough. As the two men passed the guild building's rear, Auron made out an extensive practice ground with straw-filled armors strung up in a line. Even at the current hour, several men were hacking, slashing, and stabbing away. Some of these individuals were fighting in pairs inside of rings bordered by mid-sized stones.

As they walked, a man ran out from one of the unlit walkways on their sides. 

"Great white wings rain down and steal the children. I have seen it, and they will not make me forget. Our King and Queen are dead," The man looked to be in his late fifties, his clothing torn, tears formed tracks in his mud-caked face as he screamed and cried. 

Gregory paid him no attention. The man seemed to get spooked by something as he ran back down the alleyway he came.

Running ahead, Auron could see that Gregory's eyes were a bit glossed over. The vacant expression was one that was all too familiar from his familiar. The giant armored man stopped walking. In fact, everyone around them seemed to freeze at the words of the tattered man. Even the men that were mid-swing in their sparring sessions. Auron gave chase to the man but froze at the edge of the dark entrance that ran between two buildings.

What he saw before him made him activate his Stealth out of instinct. 

Where the man had run was now the scene of a bloodbath. The alleyway was stained red as Auron fell back into the building behind him, grabbing his mouth to prevent a scream. He wondered how one person could have produced so much gore.

Four figures wearing yellow robes flashed by, and in an instant, the alleyway was back to its bloodless state—the seemingly crazy man and his remains gone.

Auron was shaking from fear. The murder of this man and subsequent clean up spoke to how insignificant his power was. Clutching his dagger he held his stealth as he prayed he would not draw the attention of the culprits.

After a few moments, Gregory called out Auron's name, searching for him as everyone unfroze at once. 

Auron released his Stealth as Gregory's earth-shaking footsteps clomped over as he chuckled. "Got spooked by something, did you?" He said the sentence cheerfully, and Auron knew there was no use in mentioning the scene to him from his experiences with Zander. The blood magic was here too. There was something very wrong with this city.

Disturbed by the events, Auron paid little attention to their surroundings as they walked. Small bits of green grass began to poke through the otherwise barren white cobblestone floor. Auron raised his eyes from his feet and took in the sizeable walled-in compound toward they were walking. 

Two men stood guard at a gateway entrance wielding vicious looking spears. Nodding to Gregory respectfully, they made no moves to stop the men. 

"You seem a little sheepish for the barracks. So you can stay in the main house with me and mine." Gregory said to Auron as they walked to a large castle-like building.

Archers wearing red-tinted goggles stood on a second-floor balcony. 

Seeing Auron's surprised face, Gregory began talking again. "There are some perks to being the brother to the Queen. Even if I was disowned for marrying outside of our mana concentration." He said, his voice taking on a hard edge. "Come on, then let's have you meet my children and get some sleep. We have an early morning of training planned." He said and clapped Auron on the back. Auron half expected to need a healing wind after the friendly blow from the giant man, but he remembered Zander's warning about using his wind magic.

Walking into the ancient but sturdy-looking building, Auron was not surprised to see the interior matched the exterior lavishness. An expensive-looking carpet wrapped around a dual mirrored staircase leading up to a second floor. Colossal stuffed creatures dwarfed the giant guild leader, standing tall and fierce a clear testament to his battle prowess.

Two small dark-haired children ran up and jumped into their father's arms. Their eyes darted shyly to the guest standing next to their parent.

 "Fiona, Liam meet Auron, he will be staying with us for a little while. He spent some time in a purple dungeon, and his head is a little fuzzy, so keep your questions to yourselves for a while, okay?" Gregory spoke to his children with a soft patience Auron would never have expected from the seasoned warrior.

"A pleasure to meet you both, Auron dipped into a polite bow, not sure where he got that move from, but it felt natural. The children were delighted by his greeting and swarmed him immediately, asking questions faster than he could follow.

"Why is your armor red and what are those patches of fur?", "Is that armor a set from a monster?" "What kind of monsters are in a yellow dungeon?" "Did you see any Behemoths out in the jungle?". Auron was instantly overwhelmed as the two children switched their questions back and forth, leaving no time for an answer. "Children, can you go get your mother?" Gregory asked the question, his tone of voice letting the children know it was not optional.

The two raced off, disappearing behind a doorway leading to the interior of the house. Gregory sighed a warm smile radiating off of his face pulling on his scars. 

"I knew they would bombard you with questions lad. Sorry about that. Speaking of your armor, there is a bit of a steel and leather embargo, but we can use some silver to fix your current gear up proper." Auron nodded appreciatively as he looked down at his worse for wear cowl. 

"Do you even remember anything about the dungeon? To get that class, you must have been in there for weeks absorbing purple mana into your core." Gregory finished speaking, and Auron did everything he could to keep his face from betraying the truth, but he was absolutely shocked. Only days had passed when he got the skill. He wondered if he was special. His face must have shown something because Gregory put a heavy hand on his shoulder. "You do not have to talk about whatever it is you do remember," Gregory said as he misinterpreted Auron's fearful expression.

Laura walked out of a doorway in front of the men. Her steps seemed to glide her across the distance as if she weighed nothing. "I sent the children to bed. They will be hard to settle down with all of the questions they have about our guest," She spoke as her chilling gaze matched her tone void of expression. 

"Show him to where he will be sleeping." Laura directed the words at her husband, barely restraining how she felt about the situation from her voice. 

With a nod, Gregory brought Auron upstairs to a sparsely furnished bedroom. "We may live in this castle, but we are a simple family. I hope my wife hasn't scared you too badly. I think the similarities between you and our son bring up memories that she would rather forget. I will talk with her." Gregory said to Auron and dismissed his protests of staying somewhere else. 

"I do not mean to be selfish in asking you to stay here, Auron, but I know this will help her also. Now get to sleep. We will be up before the sun to train. Leave your armor outside the room," Gregory then closed the door leaving Auron alone.

Overwhelmed by the day, he slid off his armor and made up the bed. As he was doing this, he realized he spent much of the day silent. With everything he was experiencing plus Gregory's assumption, he had memory issues he let the man do most of the talking. Even with his nap earlier, Auron was still somewhat tired the chicken had helped, but he most likely needed a yellow gemstone. A part of him wished he would dream of his parents as he laid back and stared up at the plain stone ceiling. Unfortunately, Auron was not done with the nightmares his memories could bring.